Ah ok! No, yeah I knew it was written in “modern times”, I just wasn’t sure how literate I had to be to fully enjoy them. Thanks dude, I can’t wait to to finish my current Clancy stint to start with O’Brian books!
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I’d rate O’Brian a smidge above Clancy in the literary value or language department. They are eminently digestible, fun. There’s a ton of sailing terms, but to me those were handled by the same part of my brain that handles star trek techno babble 
I envy you getting to read those for the first time. It’s a great series of stories. You will start to love these characters, and enjoy their dear friendship and growth.
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Well, that I like because I love to go and google terms to better understand. I love reading books that make my brain slightly larger.
I’m not overly impressed by Clancy writing style but mostly about the 80s/90s thriller side of things. The way he manages to start seemingly completely unrelated lives and tie them together.
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I’m currently rereading my favorite Aldous Huxley book, Brave New World. I love this writer.
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Jesus, I’m working with the movie OST in my earphones and it’s so powerful…
So, wow. WTF?
I finished Debt of Honor today and… wow. For a moment I thought it was written after 9/11.
I did not see that coming.
I want to read the next one now- but I do have Red Storm Rising looking at me from the nightstand.
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I’m not sure what other Clancy books you have read, but do yourself a favour and read Red Storm Rising.
For me it is his best work.
Edit: @Johnny and @JediMaster RSR is my fave prob because of the scope and as a soldier in the 80’s it was an all too plausible scenario. Oh, and if you look hard enough you will find inaccuracies (e.g. F19) in all his books
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Yeah so far I read all the books in chronological order from “Without Remorse” till “Debt of Honor”
With this I mean not the order with which they were written but according to how events in the Ryan-verse happen.
But yeah- I’m too curious about Red Storm Rising. I’ll read that next
I’ve read that so many times since it was published it no longer does much for me.
I’d recommend reading the Damien Lewis SAS books - i know I mentioned it before, but seriously, I reckon everyone here would really enjoy them. All true stories researched from those who were there or their diaries and relatives etc, official records and so on. Incredible stories, but very likely to make one anti-establishment as well!
PS - unlike many other historical non-fiction books there are no long, boring bits!
RSR is harmed by the bits we know are false, like the F-19 and such, but it’s still good overall.
Clancy was interviewed many times post 9/11 about the similarities to his book, including the stupid “do you think you gave them the idea?” questions, but it was just a case of people independently coming to the realization that any airliner can be weaponized.
Of course in Clancy’s instance he had the pilot do it, not hijackers, and we have seen apparent cases of pilot suicide taking down airliners in the 21st century, but never into a ground target. In contrast, Clancy’s pilot only killed his copilot on an empty plane before his act.
The idea that the hijackers would train to fly the planes and do it themselves was the crucial part of the plan.
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Just finished re-reading “Stealing Speed”. Motorcycle racing, cold war shenanigans, and an aerospace angle, what’s not to like.
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Yes, yes it is. My brother gave me a copy as a birthday present when it was first published. I haven’t seen much new that has caught my eye of late, so I am pulling random books off the shelf to re-read at the moment.
The author is a motorcycle journalist and tells a ripping yarn about why these:
Have so much in common with one of these:
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I used to make my own spannies.
They were ■■■■ 
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Debt of Honor was on my mind very shortly after hearing about 9/11…
Clancy had a mind for strategy and he could see and explore many angles.
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It is such an amazingly simple design, and so much can be tuned on it (if you know what you are doing).
Too bad that emission-wise it is a catastrophe.
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Key point here.
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Yeah, there’s an astonishing number of people who built great looking exhaust pipes and then wondered why the hell their 50cc didn’t have any power anymore. 
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